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Glass_S_2^:L__ 



THE GENESEE COUNTRY 



A VIEW 

OF THE 

PRESENT SITUATION 

OF THE 

WESTERN PARTS 

OF THE 

State of New- York, 

CALLED THE 

GENESEE COUNTRY. 

IN WHICH 

The Situation, Dimensions, Civil Divisions, Soil, Produce, Lakes, 

and Rivers, Curiosities, Climates, Navigation, Trade and 

Manufactures, Population, and other interesting Matters, 

relative to that Country are impartially described. 



FREDERICK- TO WN : 

PRINTED AT THE 'HERALD' PRESS 

FOR THE AUTHOR. 
1804. 






•X- * * * * vf ************* v: 

P REFA C E. 

27507 

The writer of this Description has chiefly 
e7ideavored to give a plain and perspicuous 
narration of the subjeH, and it is hoped 
that imperfeBions in the style may be over-\ 
looked by the indulgent reader. Several 
gentlemen from Maryland^ now residing in 
Genesee^ by whom it has been perused^ 
have considered it as candid and correB^ and 
have accordingly authorized their names to 
be 7nentioned ; among whom are^ Messrs. 
Henry Brothers^ Abraham Simmons^ Elias 
Cost^ and Bejijamin Parish^ from Frederick 

county, ajid Mr. Sheckles fro7n Prince 

George county. 



\Copy right secured^ 



^ %^^/%/%/^/%/^^^k^^^^^'^^/%/%/^^/%^^/%^^/%/%^ 



I DESCRIPTION, &c. 



-^-^-^ 



1 HE Country to whicH tHe name of 
Genesee is given is the most westerly 
part of the State of New York. Its 
length from east to west is about 120 miles, 
and its breadth from 80 to 90 miles, contain- 
ing nearly 10,000 square miles, and equal in 
size to three-fourths of the State of Maryland. 
It is bounded on the south mostly by the 42d. 
degree of latitude, which divides it from Penn- 
sylvania ; on the west by part of Pennsylvania 
called Presque Isle, lake Erie, and the Streights 
of Niagara ; on the north by lake Ontario ; 
and on the east by a line running nearly par- 
allel to Seneca lake, dividing it from the Mil- 
itary Lands and Tioga county. Its nearest 
distance to Albany is 190 miles, to New York 
260 miles, to Philadelphia 250 miles, to 
Baltimore 270 miles,* to Pittsburg by water 
I nearly 100 miles, and to Montreal by water 
nearly 300 miles. 

* The distance from Maryland to Genesee is as follows ; to 

Carlisle 35 miles ; to Juniatta 27 miles ; to Milton 44 miles ; to 

! Muncey 15 miles ; to Towanda 48 miles ; to Tioga Point 16 

I miles ; to Newtown 20 miles ; to Seneca lake 22 miles ; in all 

222 miles. 



[4] 

Its name is derived from the river Genesee, 
and signifies in the Indian language a pleasant 
valley. In the year 1789 a considerable part 
of this country was first purchased from the 
Indians and the State of New York by 
Messrs. Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gor- 
ham ; but little was done to effect a settlement 
of it until the year 1792, when a large tract 
was purchased by a gentleman of eminence 
in England, who formed a plan of settlement, 
which has since been conducted by Charles 
Williamson, Esq. with perseverance and 
success. 

Nearly one half of this country situated 
nearest to the southern boundary is hilly, 
broken land, intermixed however with many 
fertile parts. The face of the other parts, 
beyond this tract, is generally even, a consid- 
erable part, on the east of Genesee river, 
consisting of low ridges of easy ascent and 
descent, and on the west of Genesee river the 
country is more flat and level. On both sides 
of Genesee river, particularly on the west, 
are large openings which are thinly timbered, 
are in some parts very fertile, and could 
easily be put under cultivation. On the east 
side of Genesee river the country in many 
parts makes a pleasant and flourishing appear- 
ance, the settlers having a prevailing custom of 
building adjoining the public roads, and cultiv- 
ating lands nearest them. From Canandarqua 
to Genesee .river, a distance of twenty five 
miles, the country has the most flourishing 



[5] 

appearance, tliat part being earliest settled,and 
abounds with very substantial improvements 
which are seldom exceeded in any country in 
the pleasantness of their appearance for the 
same distance. 

The quality of the soil is various, but in the 
better or lower part of the country beforemen- 
tioned a rich loamy soil is the most common, 
and it is covered on the top with a loose black 
mould from six to ten inches thick. This 
part of the country is timbered mostly with the 
sugar maple, beech, lyn, here called bass- 
wood, oak, and elm ; and the hilly parts are 
generally timbered with oak. Where the 
sugar maple and basswood are most common 
the land is generally esteemed best for grass, 
and probably for grain, and is experienced to 
be durable ; and lands which produce mostly 
beech timber are considered as generally 
clayey, wet and cold. A considerable pro- 
portion of the better part of the country is 
timbered with oak, and lands on which it is of 
a large growth are by many esteemed the most 
durable, although at first not productive of as 
good crops as maple lands, and harder in till- 
age. Grain is frequently put into the ground 
without ploughing, the ground being only 
broke with a heavy harrow, and frequently 
yields with this cultivation upwards of twenty 
bushels on an acre. 

But although the growth of timber usually 
denotes the sort of soil on which it grows, yet 
it frequently happens that the soil varies 

A 2 



[6] 

materially in different places where tlie same 
sort of timber grows, and it is observed^ m 
some parts that the growth of the yonng tim- 
ber is of a different sort from the old. Lands 
on which the growth of timber almost entirely 
consists of maple, basswood, and beech, appear 
to be attended with a scarcity of tim- 
ber most suitable for fences; although a 
quantity of oak, elm and ash, is usually found;^ 
on land of this description, it is said sufficient ^ 
for the purposes of fencing and building ; and ' 
basswood rails when the bark is taken off are 
tolerably durable. A considerable part of 
the country has a rock of limestone sunk some 
feet under the surface of the earth. 

The most useful sorts of timber are, the 
sugar maple, oak, pine which grows in some 
parts, yellow poplar, here called whitewood, 
wild cherry, white and black walnut, hickory, 
wild plum and dogwood. Of shrubs and 
plants the most noted are sassafras, wild hops, 
fox grapes in some parts, ginseng, sarsaparil- 
la, snakeroot, spikenard, mandrakes m taste 
and flavour much resembling a pme apple, 
strawberries, whortleberries, cranberries which 
are used for preserves, and wild gooseberries. 
Fruit, as apples, peaches &c. grows to much 
advantage, and in some parts are orchards that 
were raised by the Indians, but fruit^ trees 
were mostly destroyed in the expedition of 
general Sullivan against the Indians m the 
revolutionary war. This country is very 
favourable for the raising of grass,the uplands 



[7] 

usually producing from a ton and a half to two 
tons an acre, and sometimes three tons. It 
is uncommonly favourable for wheat, of which 
from twenty to twenty five bushels are generally 
raised on an acre, but it has been known to 
yield forty and frequently thirty bushels, an 
acre, and the gain is generally large and of a 
good quality. Corn generally grows to the 
amount of thirty bushels on an acre, and in 
'-ome instances on the flats of Genesee river, 
md of Mud creek, it is said to the extent of 
seventy and eighty bushels an acre. Corn is 
less in the size of the ear than in Maryland,but 
grows closer, and a bushel of it is several 
pounds heavier and more substantial in qual- 
1 ity. Rye commonly yields a less quantity 
1 than wheat ; oats, buckwheat, and other sorts 
1 of grain are very productive, and flax and 
hemp grow very luxuriant. Tobacco is rais- 
ed of a good quality, but as yet not in large 
quantities ; a gentleman from Maryland has 
raised some thousand plants of it this last 
season, and it is believed that it might be 
advantageously raised for market. Maple 
sugar is manufactured in such quantities that 
some of the inhabitants make from five hun- 
dred to upwards of a thousand pounds of it in 
a season. A tree produces by boiling down 
the sap, from two to five pounds of sugar, and 
it is made near the end of winter, when but 
little of any other work is done on a farm. 
The sap of the maple also affords a supply of 
vinegar, and excellent molasses. 



[8] 

The cheapness and fertility of land in this 
country, together with its easy communca- 
tions to different markets, and the healthiness 
of the climate in general, are advantages not 
possessed in an equal degree in other new 
settlements, and render this country an object 
worthy of attention to those who wish their 
estates in a few years to increase in extent and 
in value. The price of the best lands not im- 
proved on the east of Genesee river is com- 
monly from two to four dollars an acre, and 
one hundred acres having twenty or thirty 
acres improved, and a house and barn, are sold 
from eight to twenty dollars an acre. On 
the west of Genesee river the best unimprov- 
ed lands sell from one & a half to two dollars 
an acre. Lands that are now selling at four 
dollars an acre, were sold twelve years ago 
at only the same number of shillings an acre, 
and the advance of their value in the course of 
lo or 15 years hence will most probably be very 
considerable. A farm may probably be pur- 
chased in the cheapest manner by buying land 
without any improvement. Three men with 
a yoke of oxen will commonly clear and fence, 
and sow or plant ten acres in four or five 
weeks, and also build a comfortable house; 
and such improvement may be hired at the rate 
often or twelve dollars an acre, and fifty dollars 
for a log house. If an improvement is made 
in the early part of spring, a sufi&cient supply of 
corn and spring-wheat may be raised the first 
season for a family ; & cattle may be well kept 



[9] 
even in tlie woods. There are many in- 
stances of cattle being kept throughout the 
winters only with browsing or eating the tops 
of basswood and some other sorts of trees 
cut down for them, although hay may be pur- 
chased cheap and in abundance. 

Of wild animals the most remarkable are 
bears and wolves, which abound most in the 
hilly parts; also deer, and elks a large species 
of deer weighing five or six hundred pounds, 
and a few panthers. Sheep are some- 
times destroyed ; but as a liberal reward is al- 
lowed for killing wolves and panthers, they be- 
come scarce as the population of the country 
increases. Squirrels are so numerous in some 
years as considerably to injure corn, and 
upwards of 2,000 of them have sometimes 
been killed in the compass of six miles in one 
day which is appointed for that purpose by the 
inhabitants : the most common kinds ol them 
are the black, and the red, the grey coloured 
being very scarce. Of reptiles the most re- 
markable is the rattlesnake, which is seen 
mostly in the hilly parts. Large numbers of 
pigeons frequent the country m spring and 
fall, of which a great many are caught by nets 
and by shooting, and beds are sometimes made 
of their feathers. There are partridges and 
quails ; and wild fowl and fish are abundant 
in lake Ontario and other lakes,and in the rivers. 
In reference to horses, those which have 
been raised in this country are very good. It 
has been supposed some years ago that this 



[ lo] 

country is unfavourable to horses brought 
from other States, when put to feed on the nat- 
ural pasture and herbage in the woods ; but it 
is asserted that when they are well kept, and 
have salt sometimes given them, they are 
then as healthy as elsewhere. Oxen grow un- 
commonly large, usually measuring from 
six and a half to seven feet round the shoul- 
ders, and are mostly used for work, being very 
manageable and perhaps most suitable for 
working on new lands. A larger breed of 
horned cattle is now raising. Sheep and hogs 
are very thriving. The growth of cattle is 
rapid from the abundance of the herbage natu- 
ral to the woods, and the goodness of improv- 
ed pasture ; a cow commonly bringing forth a 
calf at the age of twenty four months, and 
oftentimes of twenty months. 

Several mineral springs have been found 
particularly of sulphur, one of which 13 miles 
north west from Geneva is of a suf&cient size 
and fall for an overshot mill, and its scent. is 
conveyed by the wind nearly two miles. This 
spring issues out of the ground in different 
branches, and adjoining to it are two large 
beds or bogs of sulphur, into which a stick 
may be thrust upwards of six feet deep. A 
public house has lately been opened near it 
by a gentleman from Maryland, w^hich is 
much resorted by company either from 
motives of pleasure, or the medical qualities of 
the spring. A spring is said to be discover- 
ed near Canandarqua lake, the water running 



from it forming a crust of pure allum on the 
rocks. A salt spring is discovered west from 
Genesee river, which is said to be sufficient 
for a large supply of salt ; but the inhabitants 
are at present plentifully supplied with that 
valuable article from the salt springs in the 
military lands, at the distance of from 14 to 
40 miles, and it is sold at the works of Onon- 
daga at two dollars a barrel containing five 
bushels, and sometimes cheaper, and is ex- 
changed near Geneva at a dollar a bushel, 
for grain. Near the head of Genesee river 
there is a remarkable spring, the water issuing 
from it being covered with a sort of oil called 
by the Indians Seneca oil, which is excellent 
for wounds and other uses, and will flame 
upon fire being applied to it. 

As to curiosities, the falls of Niagara and 
of Genesee river are very remarkable ; those 
of Niagara being the greatest curiosity of the 
kind in the world, falling 157 feet perpendicu- 
larly where the river is three quarters of a 
mile broad, and is sometimes heard at the dis- 
tance of upwards of twenty miles. There are 
many remains of ancient fortifications, of 
which a chain appears to extend from the 
low^er end of lake Ontario to the west of the 
Ohio^ These forts afford much speculation 
concerning their origin, but the most probable 
conclusion is that they were erected by the 
French on their first settlement in America, 
nearly 200 years ago. 



[12] 

This country is considered as indififerently 
watered in reference to springs and running 
water; but it is expected that the clearing of 
lands will cause a greater plenty of that article, 
which at present runs frequently under 
ground by the hollowness which is occa- 
sioned by the roots of trees ; and a great part 
of it is now consumed by the nourishment of 
timber. Water however is readily found 
by digging wells commonly 15 or 20 feet in 
depth, and is not more scarce or worse in 
quality than in many of the most populous 
parts of Maryland and Virginia. The practice 
of the inhabitants of building adjoining the 
public roads often occasions too great a dis- 
tance from springs, and they might frequently 
be couviently supplied with water, were they 
to build on other parts of their farms. There 
is however a considerable abundance of 
streams for mills, inasmuch as the greater 
part of the inhabitants are not farther than a 
few miles distant from mills which are plenti- 
fully supplied with water in all seasons. 

The following are the principal lakes and 
rivers : 

Lake Ontario, by which this country is 
bounded on the north, is about 180 miles in 
length, and about 60 miles in breadth. Its 
shore is indented with many creeks and inlets, 
which form excellent harbours for boats and 
sloops, of which last sort and of brigs there are 
about ten sail on this lake ; and the lands ad- 
joining it are of an excellent quality. 



[13] 

Lake Erie, part of whicli forms tlie western 
boundary, is about 300 miles in length and 
50 in breadth. From this lake are easy com- 
munications to the Ohio river. 

Seneca lake is 35 miles in length and from 
2 to 3 miles in breadth. It stretches in a 
direction nearly from south to north, forming 
a handsome sheet of wholesome water, being 
of a great depth, and never freezes over in 
winter ; and in summer a bottle being let under 
the surface a few feet draws up water pure and 
cool. This lake is navigated by a sloop and a 
schooner, besides boats ; and by its outlet 
boats navigate to Seneca or Oswego river, 
and from thence to the neighbourhood of Al- 
bany, where there is a good market for the 
produce of the country, and by Oswego river 
boats navigate into lake Ontario to Canada, 
and to Montreal &c. by the river St. Law- 
rence : — out of lake Ontario also, the naviga- 
tion may be extended, with the intervention of 
short carrying places, many hundred miles by 
the great lakes of Canada, and to the waters of 
the Ohio and Mississippi. From the head of 
Seneca lake there is a carrying place to Tioga 
river, to which considerable quantities of 
grain and other articles are transported, and 
down Tioga river are conveyed in the dis- 
tance of 20 miles to Susquehanna river, in 
the neighbourhood of which are several mark- 
ets, or to Baltimore. 

Canandarqua lake is situated 15 miles west 
from Seneca lake, is about 25 miles in length, 
and nearly two miles wide. 

B 



[i4] 

Crooked lake and Mud lake are situated on 
the west side of Seneca lake, and Honeyoy and 
Hemlock lakes west from Canandarqua lake. 
Cliataughqua lake is situated near lake Erie. 
These lakes are from 6 to 15 miles in length, 
and their outlets afford excellent mill seats. 

Genesee river rises near the Pennsylvania 
line, and running a north easterly course of 
above 100 miles, empties into lake Ontario. 
It is situated 40 miles west from Seneca lake, 
is navigable for boats nearly fifty miles, and 
has a carrying place at falls six miles from its 
mouth. On this river are very extensive rich 
flats, from a half mile to nearly two miles 
wide, and are overflowed in the spring season, 
which occasions agues and other bilious com- 
plaints among the inhabitants. In some parts 
the flats are cleared of timber to a considerable 
extent. 

Mud creek rises east from Genesee river, 
and running a north easterly course, is joined 
by the outlet of Canandarqua lake at Lyons, 15 
miles north of Geneva, from whence it is 
navigated by boats to Seneca river, and from 
thence to the neighbourhood of Albany or into 
lake Ontario. On Mud creek are very exten- 
sive and fertile flats, which are mostly over- 
flowed in spring. 

Cohocton river rises near the head waters 
of Genesee river, and running a south easterly 
course, empties into Tioga river. From this 
river and other branches of Tioga river, arks 
carrying twelve hundred bushels, together 



[ 15] 

with boats and rafts navigate to Susquehanna 
river, from whence they proceed to markets 
in the lower parts of Pennsylvania and in Ma- 
ryland, every spring and frequently in the fall, 
and boats continue to navigate up and down 
till midsummer.'^' 

Alleghany river rises near the southern 
boundary, running a westerly course of nearly 
loo miles till it enters Pennsylvania, where it 
runs in a southerly course to Pittsburg on the 
Ohio river. It is said to be navigable by arks 
and boats in the spring season, from a consid- 
erable distance in this country to the Ohio. 

French creek rises near the lower end of 
lake Brie, and runs in a southerly course nearly 
loo miles to its junction with Alleghany river 
in Pennsylvania. Near its head waters at an 
old fort formerly in the possession of the 
French, called Le Beuf, there is a carrying 
place of 15 miles to lake Erie, and by this 
route quantities of salt are conveyed from lake 
Erie down French creek to Alleghany river, 
and from thence to the Ohio ; the distance 
from lake Erie to the Ohio being less than 150 
miles. This communication was used by the 
French, before the taking of Fort Pitt from 
them by the English in 1758, & it is probable 
that by it goods might be conveyed from New 
York or from Albany to lake Ontario and lake 

*Au iusurance company iu Baltimore now insure produce 
which is transported down Susquehanna river from Newtown 
on Tioga river, 22 miles from the head of Seneca lake, and an 
agent is appointed by the company, who resides at Newtown. 



[ i6] 

Erie and from thence be transported to Pitts- 
burg at less expence than by any other com- 
munication. The lands in the neighbourhood 
of this creek are reported to be remarkably 
good. 

Tonnawanto creek rises west from Genesee 
river, runs a westerly course, and falls into 
the streights of Niagara : it is navigable by 
boats about 20 miles. 

Buffalo creek rises south from Tonnawanto 
creek, runs a westerly course, emptying 
itself into the streights of Niagara. The lands 
on this creek are remarkably good in quality. 

Delaware river runs south from Buffalo 
creek, in a westerly course, and empties into 
lake Erie. 

The climate appears to be variable, which 
is probably caused by the neighbourhood of 
the immense bodies of water contained in the 
lakes by which this country is partly bounded. 
This also is probably the cause of the mild- 
ness of the climate in summer and winter ; for 
it appears reasonable to conclude that the air 
which passes over extensive bodies of water 
which freezes not in winter and is nearly of 
the same degree of coldness in summer as in 
winter, — must be more uniform in its tem- 
perature than it would be if the air passed over 
land. The mildness of the climate of Great 
Britian is ascribed by geographers to a like 
cause, that it is surrounded by the sea, which 
occasions the summers and winters in that 
countr}^ to be more temperate than it would 



[i7] 

otherwise be. Geographers also assert that 
countries situated west from the Alleghauy 
mountains as the Genesee country is, possess 
a milder climate than those on the east side of 
those mountains, which are situated in a lati- 
tude as far north. The heat of summer in this 
country is accordingly moderate, and the nights 
are so cool as always to admit of sleeping un- 
der a blanket comfortably ; and the winters are 
considerably less severe than in the neigh- 
bourhood of Albany and in Massachusetts, 
which are situated as far north. 

In most parts the climate is healthy, partic- 
ularly considering this as a newly settled 
country, of which only an inconsiderable part is 
yet improved ; though in the neighbourhood 
of marshes and stagnated waters the inhabit- 
ants are subject to agues and other bilious 
complaints. Once in three or four years, as 
is the case in most countries, it has been sick- 
ly in many parts. The fall of 1801 was prob- 
ably as sickly a season as any one since the 
earliest settlement, which is imputed to an un- 
common wetness of the weather, occasioning 
much stagnated water. The prevailing sick- 
ness which was the bilious fever, proved how- 
ever not very mortal to the sick, and the num- 
ber of deaths was most probably not more 
than one for every two hundred inhabitants. 

Trees usually put forth leaves the earliest 
sorts in the first week of May, and oak and 
other later sorts near the 20th of that month. 
Corn is planted from the 15th to the 25th and 



[i8] 

by some near the first of May. Rye begins to 
ripen and hay is begun to be cut near the 4th 
of July, and near the 15th of July wheat har- 
vest is begun. Water commonly begins to 
be frozen near the first week of October, and 
snow commonly falls near the 20th of Novem- 
ber ; but cattle are sometimes kept in pasture 
until January, and on the flats of Genesee near- 
ly the whole winter. Snow commonly lies 
about nine inches deep, and seldom exceeds 12 
inches. In the beginning of the 3^ear 1 800 snow 
fell in most places about three feet deep, but 
there is no other instance known of so 
great a fall of it. The coldness of winters is 
probably not more severe though more con- 
stant here than in Maryland near the upper 
parts ; and the longer continuance of snow in 
this country, besides its usefulness to grain, 
renders the use of sleys very common and con- 
venient for the transportation of produce to 
market, a pair of horses travelling with thirty 
bushels at the rate of 35 or 40 miles in a day. 
The winters usually break up about the mid- 
dle of March. 

This country is divided into three counties, 
viz. Steuben, Ontario, and Genesee, which 
are subdivided into townships 6 miles square. 
The county of Ontario alone contains about 
18,000 inhabitants, in the bounds of 45 miles 
square, and the others about 6,000 inhabit- 
ants. The number of voters in Ontario and 
Genesee counties, in spring 1803, for a sena- 
tor to the state legislature, by which an idea 

B2 



[19] 

may he formed of the population of each town- 
ship, is as follows : Canandarqiia 8i, Augusta 
55, Pittstown iii, Bloomfield 245, Eastown 
89, Charlestown 57, Bristol no, Phelps 73, 
Williamson 33, Sodus 19, Northiield 81, 
Palmyra 82, Farmington 38, Hartford 60, 
Sparta 45, Middletown 63, Jerusalem 11, 
Seneca 109, Genesee 109, Vernon 71, North- 
ampton 63, Southampton ^(y^ Batavia 151, 
and Leicester 45, The whole number of 
votes is 1867, ^^ which 1059 are denominated 
federal and 807 republican. 

Canandarqua is the principal town in 
this country, and the chief town of Ontario 
County ; it contains about fifty dwelling 
houses, which are generally well built, and 
some of them are elegant. The principal 
street rises by a very gradual ascent, stretch- 
ing upwards of a mile in a straight line 
from the north end of the lake of the same 
name, and is about fifty yards in breadth^ 
making a very pleasant appearance. The 
houses have generally a lot of land under cul- 
tivation belonging to each, and many of its 
inhabitants are in wealthy circumstances. 
It has a convenient courthouse, in which 
public worship is performed by a minis- 
ter of the church of England persuasion ; 
a handsome gaol, a large academ}^ lately finish- 
ed which is said to be well provided for, 
about 8 well supplied stores, in which goods 
are sold on very moderate terms, several con- 
siderable distilleries, a large tanyard in which 



[20] 

IS manufactured a considerable quantity of 
leather, a market for butcher meat, sever- 
al good inns, and a printing office in which 
have been printed nearly i,ooo papers weekly. 

Geneva contains about 40 dwelling houses, 
and is handsomely situated near the outlet 
of Seneca lake. It has a large and elegant 
hotel kept in the best manner & other inns,two 
schoolhouses, one of which is occasionally 
occupied for public worship by a presbyterian 
minister, several well supplied stores, 3 con- 
siderable distilleries, a brewery, and a mar- 
ket for butcher meat of which about 1,000 
pounds is killed weekly. It is a place of con- 
siderable business^ and from hence large quan- 
tities of wheat and other produce are sent to 
the head of Seneca lake, from whence it is 
transported to Tioga river, and thence to mar- 
kets down Susquehanna river ; and by the 
outlet of Seneca lake wheat, flour, potash, and 
other productions are conveyed to Albany. 

Bath is the chief town of Steuben 
county, and is situated on the Cohocton river. 
It consists of about 30 dwelling houses, and 
from hence a number of arks carrying 1,200 
bushels, boats and rafts navigate by Tioga riv- 
er down Susquehanna river, every spring and 
sometimes in fall ; and flour has been trans- 
ported from this place to Baltimore at less ex- 
pence than a dollar a barrel. 

Batavia is the chief town of Genesee 
county, and is situated 30 miles west from Ge- 
nesee river. It contains about 30 dwelling 



[21] 

Houses built within a few years, a handsome 
courthouse, and is rapidly improving. 

The most noted place besides these is 
fort Niagara, situated at the head of lake On- 
tario, which is remarkable as an ancient forti- 
fication, and one of our principal posts. 

The manners and customs of the inhabitants 
are different and resemble those in the several 
states from which they have emigrated ; the 
greater part being from the New England 
states. Between Geneva and Canandarqua 
are many families from Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey and Maryland ; and there are several 
families from England and Scotland. The 
inhabitants are generally an industrious and 
civil people, and instances of quarrelling at 
public meetings and other places are uncom- 
mon and considered to be disreputable. There 
are but few black people, and those that are 
born in this State are by law allowed their 
freedom after the age of 28 ; but those from 
other states continue as slaves during life. 
The blacks have an attachment to this coun- 
try, as they live well and have an example of 
industry from the settlers ; and their work is 
perhaps not so laborious as in Maryland, the 
heavier sorts of work being chiefly performed 
by oxen. There are but few ministers of the 
gospel yet settled, but schools are numerous 
and well provided for. 

A turnpike road is now completed from Al- 
bany to Canandarqua at a great expence, 
which is supported by tolls, and renders trav- 
elling and the carriage of produce to market 



[22] 

much easier when the rivers are low. Wag- 
ons now frequently carry loads of fourteen 
barrels of flour to Albany, and return with an 
equal weight, and sometimes carry two tons, 
going and returning in about fourteen days. 
A mail stage runs from Canandargua to Al- 
bany twice a week. 

Trade is yet in its infancy and has much 
encreased within a few years. Grain is sent 
in considerable quantities to markets down 
Susquehanna river, and with the addition of 
flour, potash & other produce, to Albany ; and 
a considerable quantity of grain has for some 
years past been transported by sleys in winter 
from the west of Albany. Whiskey is distilled 
in considerable quantities, and mostly consum- 
ed in the country, & is also transported to Can- 
ada and down Susquehanna. The produce 
of the country is received by storekeepers in 
payment for goods, and with horses and 
cattle, also for land. Droves of cattle are 
sent to different markets, and a considerable 
number of cattle, and other provisions, are used 
at the markets of Canandarqua & Geneva, & b}^ 
settlers emigrating into the country. Cattle 
commonly sell for money at a good price, and 
as this country is very favourable for raising 
them, they will probably become the prin- 
cipal article for market ; many being of the 
opinion that the raising of stock is more pro- 
fitable as well as easier than any mode of farm- 
ing. The following is a list of the prices of 
articles and the rates of wages since January 
1801 :— 



[ 23 ] 

Wheat, from 62 cents to i dollar a bushel. 

Corn from 37 to 50 cents ditto. 

Rye from 50 to 62 cents ditto. 

Hay from 6 to 10 dollars a ton. 

Butter and Cheese, 10 to 16 cents a pound. 

A yoke of oxen, 50 to 80 dollars. 

Milk cows, 16 to 25 dollars. 

Cattle for driving, 3 to 4 dollars a 100 lb. 

A pair of good working horses, 100 to 125 
dollars. 

Sheep, 3 to 5 dollars. 

Pork, fresh killed in winter, 4 to 6 dollars a 
hundred, and salted, in spring, 8 to 10 doll- 
ars. 

Whiskey, from 56 to 75 cents a gallon. 

Salt I dollar a bushel weighing 56 pounds. 

Field ashes, 5 to 9 cents a btishel. 600 
bushels of ashes may be manufactured into a 
ton of pot or pearl-ash, which has sold at mar- 
ket at 125 to 225 dollars ; and some persons by 
saving their ashes or by manufacturing them 
have nearly cleared the cost of improving laud. 

The wages of a labourer, 8 to 12 dollars a 
month and board. 

Ditto of a carpenter or joiner, 75 to 125 
cents a day and board. 

A suit of clothes made at 4 to 5 dollars. 

A pair of shoes, 150 to 250 cents. 

Store goods at very moderate prices, the 
expence of carriage from New York or from Al- 
bany being about 125 cents a hundred weight. 



300 COPIES REPRINTED 

FOR 

GEORGE P. HUMPHREY, 

ROCHESTER, N. Y. 

1892. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 107 600 O 



